Save Victorian Events has called upon the Australian Government to provide practical and financial support to the Victorian events industry in a new campaign.
In a recent media release, Save Victorian Events has announced its vision for an event led recovery for Victoria, arguing that facilitating future events will help to garner a much-needed sense of community and boost the economy.
The organisation notes that the event industry, which has been particularly devastated by the pandemic, is not included in the state government’s reopening roadmap with no indication of when larger events will be allowed.
Save Victorian Events argues that investing in events led recovery will provide hope for the future and have widespread economic benefit as the industry employs 200,000 people and has a direct spend of $12+ billion per year.
This vision for restoring the industry includes calling upon the Victorian Government to change its approach and clearly outline a roadmap for events over the remaining months of 2021 and 2022.
Save Victorian Events also calls upon the government to commit to providing practical support such as training and dedicated helplines to assist in the development of COVID safe events.
Suggested government support also includes rapidly implementing event cancellation insurance to cover potential losses if an event is cancelled due to COVID and continuation of the existing Business CAP financial support and federal Disaster Payments for event industry workers and businesses.
The organisation has also proposed a selected allocation of funds to target industry recovery across Victoria. The suggested funding program includes:
- $10m Community Event Fund for regional councils to fund organisations and businesses to hold events.
- $20m Community Event Fund for metropolitan councils to fund organisations businesses to hold events.
- $30 million Public Event Fund to provide grants to businesses to hold public events and festivals over the next six months.
- $40 million Business Event Fund to provide grants to businesses to help provide events and conferences over the next six months.
- $50 million Event Industry Business Support Fund to provide direct financial support to event industry businesses to financially prepare for future events.
With so many businesses uncertain of their financial viability and future, the organisation calls for a rapid change in approach to encourage events and industry recovery in 2022. To find out more about this vision for industry recovery, follow Save Victorian Events.
Photo: Save Victorian Events
